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Alexander the Great and the Indian princess Cleofile love one another, but intrigues involving her brother Taxilus and his ally Porus complicate their relationship. The five-act verse tragedy is based largely on a surviving work by Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus.
After the Trojan War, Andromache is held captive by Pyrrhus, who desires her. He reveals her son Skamander survived and offers her responsibility for his upbringing, but Andromache remains devoted to her dead husband Hector and resists Pyrrhus. Hermione seeks to become queen, while her cousin Orest arrives with Greek demands that she marry Pyrrhus and that Skamander be killed. When Pyrrhus offers Andromache the crown, Hermione asks Orest to kill her rivals. Pyrrhus and his warriors pledge to protect Skamander if Andromache accepts Pyrrhus; she closes by declaring Ilion defeated.
Orestes seeks to recover Andromaque's son Astyanax, while hoping Hermione will leave Pyrrhus and return with him. Hermione longs for Pyrrhus, who desires Andromaque. Andromaque agrees to marry Pyrrhus to save her son but plans to die afterward; Pyrrhus is killed by Orestes' men, Hermione takes her own life and Orestes goes mad.
Pyrrhus loves his Trojan captive Andromaque, while Hermione loves Pyrrhus and Oreste loves Hermione. To save her son Astyanax, Andromaque agrees to marry Pyrrhus but resolves to die before the wedding; Hermione orders Oreste to kill Pyrrhus, then kills herself when the Greeks carry out the murder, leaving Oreste mad with despair.
Athalie, queen of Judah, has abandoned Israelite religion and believes she has destroyed the royal family, but the high priest Joad and his wife have secretly raised the surviving child Joash. As Athalie encounters the child and seeks control of him, the priests reveal his royal identity and restore him to the throne; Joad executes Athalie.
In the Ottoman court, grand vizier Acomat plans to exploit Sultan Murad’s absence and promote Bajazet. Bajazet loves Atalide but feigns affection for Roxane to gain power; when Roxane discovers the truth and learns Murad has prevailed, she orders Bajazet’s death, is herself assassinated, and Atalide takes her own life.
Alexander the Great and the Indian princess Cleofile love one another, but intrigues involving her brother Taxilus and his ally Porus complicate their relationship. The five-act verse tragedy is based largely on a surviving work by Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus.
After the Trojan War, Andromache is held captive by Pyrrhus, who desires her. He reveals her son Skamander survived and offers her responsibility for his upbringing, but Andromache remains devoted to her dead husband Hector and resists Pyrrhus. Hermione seeks to become queen, while her cousin Orest arrives with Greek demands that she marry Pyrrhus and that Skamander be killed. When Pyrrhus offers Andromache the crown, Hermione asks Orest to kill her rivals. Pyrrhus and his warriors pledge to protect Skamander if Andromache accepts Pyrrhus; she closes by declaring Ilion defeated.
Orestes seeks to recover Andromaque's son Astyanax, while hoping Hermione will leave Pyrrhus and return with him. Hermione longs for Pyrrhus, who desires Andromaque. Andromaque agrees to marry Pyrrhus to save her son but plans to die afterward; Pyrrhus is killed by Orestes' men, Hermione takes her own life and Orestes goes mad.
Pyrrhus loves his Trojan captive Andromaque, while Hermione loves Pyrrhus and Oreste loves Hermione. To save her son Astyanax, Andromaque agrees to marry Pyrrhus but resolves to die before the wedding; Hermione orders Oreste to kill Pyrrhus, then kills herself when the Greeks carry out the murder, leaving Oreste mad with despair.
Athalie, queen of Judah, has abandoned Israelite religion and believes she has destroyed the royal family, but the high priest Joad and his wife have secretly raised the surviving child Joash. As Athalie encounters the child and seeks control of him, the priests reveal his royal identity and restore him to the throne; Joad executes Athalie.
In the Ottoman court, grand vizier Acomat plans to exploit Sultan Murad’s absence and promote Bajazet. Bajazet loves Atalide but feigns affection for Roxane to gain power; when Roxane discovers the truth and learns Murad has prevailed, she orders Bajazet’s death, is herself assassinated, and Atalide takes her own life.
After Vespasian's death, Titus is expected to marry Bérénice, queen of Palestine. Facing Roman opposition to the match, he chooses his duty as emperor over love and sends Antiochus to tell her; Bérénice rejects both men's offers and leaves Rome.
Nero’s desire for Junia, Britannicus’s fiancée, drives him to assert himself against his mother Agrippina and plot against his adoptive brother, whose succession claim he has already usurped.
After Titus becomes emperor, he must choose between his love for Judean queen Bérénice and loyalty to Rome, whose people oppose her. Warned against meeting her, he nevertheless comes to her boat before she cuts her hair and quietly departs for Ostia.
In Epirus after the Trojan War, Andromaca agrees to marry Pirro only to protect her son Astianatte, while the rejected Ermione turns to Oreste for revenge. Pirro is killed by soldiers; Ermione then condemns Oreste, who escapes with his companion Pilade.
A three-act biblical drama based on the Book of Esther, composed for the education and performance of young noblewomen at Saint-Cyr and presented in a liturgical mode.
Queen Esther, persuaded by her uncle Mordecai, reveals her Jewish identity to King Achasuerus despite the danger to herself. She seeks to persuade the king to rescind the edict to exterminate the enslaved Hebrews.
A three-act heroic opera about the fifth-century Roman general Ezio (Flavius Aetius), returning from victory over Attila.
A two-act opera based on Jean Racine's play Phèdre.
At Aulis, Agamemnon faces pressure to sacrifice his daughter Iphigénie so the Greek fleet can sail against Troy. As Iphigénie accepts her fate and Achille tries to save her, Ériphile is revealed as the intended sacrificial victim and dies in her place.
A five-act Italian reform opera based on a libretto for Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, itself derived from Racine’s Phèdre.
Eteocles and Polynices fight for control of Thebes despite the pleas of their mother Jocasta, sister Antigone, and their relatives. The conflict ends in the deaths of the principal characters.
Judge Dandin, forced into retirement, is obsessed with holding trials and turns his home into a courtroom where servants and even animals plead and are convicted. His son Léandre is in love with Isabelle, daughter of the lawsuit-obsessed Chicanneau.
Set in the kingdom of Pontus, Racine’s tragedy follows Mithridates’ sons Xiphares and Pharnaces as Roman forces threaten the kingdom and Monime, their father’s fiancée, becomes the focus of competing loyalties. Mithridates returns from apparent death, tests his sons’ allegiance, and plans an invasion of Italy; after Roman attack and his own defeat, he pardons Monime and unites her with Xiphares before dying.
After a defeat, Mitridate is presumed dead, and his sons Farnace and Sifare both desire Aspasia. When he returns with Princess Ismene, he learns Farnace is pursuing Aspasia and plotting with the Romans. Mitridate arrests Farnace and discovers Sifare’s love for Aspasia. As Rome attacks, Sifare joins his father in battle. Defeated, Mitridate takes his own life after blessing Sifare and Aspasia and forgiving Farnace, who agrees to marry Ismene.
During Theseus’s absence, Phèdre confesses her forbidden love for her stepson Hippolytus, who loves Aricia. After Theseus returns, Oenone falsely accuses Hippolytus of assaulting Phèdre, and Theseus invokes Neptune against him. Hippolytus dies, and Phèdre confesses the truth before dying by poison; Theseus pardons and adopts Aricia.